Top 10 Multi-Stop Route Planner Apps in 2024

Mapping a route with multiple stops is a logistical puzzle, leaving you with more questions than answers. For years, people have been planning routes manually using pen-paper and physical maps. These routes were not accurate and fuel-efficient. As technology advanced, tools like Google Maps came into the picture. However, it did not solve any of the previous challenges.

These challenges raise the need for a multi-stop route planner or route maker that can plan accurate routes in minutes. Today, there are plenty of shortest route planner apps available in the market, all with different features and pricing structures. So, the question is, which one suits your business best?

To help you find an answer to this question, we have curated the following list of the 11 best multi-stop route planner apps that can be an ideal fit for your business.

1. Upper: Delivery and service-based business
2. DynoRoute: Fleet management companies
3. BadgerMaps: Field sales businesses
4. OptimoRoute: Mobile workforce
5. Onfleet: Last-mile delivery management companies
6. Circuit: Delivery or field service-based businesses
7. Google Maps: Localized retailers
8. MyRoute Online: Delivery, distribution, sales, and service companies
9. MapQuest: Small-sized retail companies 
10. Apple Maps:  Apple users looking for limited route planning

We compiled this list after vetting 20 options available based on the range of functionalities, ease of use, stand-out features unique to them, and prices. Last but not least, we factored in what users had to say about each app to finalize it.

10 Best Multi-Stop Route Planners

1. Upper

Number of stops: Up to 500

Route optimization: Available

Multi-stop route planning: Available

Works on: Android

Ideal for: Delivery and service-based businesses 

Upper is the ideal route planner that comes in handy to streamline your delivery or field service operations. What sets Upper Solo route planner app apart from other multi-stop route planner apps is the advanced routing algorithms it leverages to create the most efficient routes for you. 

The app allows you to plan and optimize routes based on traffic, customers’ preferred time windows, distances of stops, and your working hours. If you are a solo driver or technician delivering packages or fulfilling service requests in an area, Upper Solo is the right solution for you. Its easy ‘drag and drop’ functionality lets you change the sequence of stops based on last-minute changes to avoid delays.

If you are concerned about customers’ false complaints regarding ‘undelivered’ items, this app has got you covered with the highly demanded Proof of Delivery feature. It lets you maintain verifiable digital proof (images or customers’ signatures) of successful deliveries for future reference. However, your optimal functioning may depend on the stability of your internet. 

Key Features:

1. Multi-stop route planning and optimization: It allows you to create optimal routes based on time-based constraints like traffic and customers’ preferred service or delivery time windows. You can also factor in delivery distances, real-time traffic data, priority stops, and special delivery instructions while optimizing your routes. 
2. Address validation: This app ensures every stop is correct, whether you import it from spreadsheets or your other software, eliminating typos, wrong zip codes, and incomplete addresses.
3. Dynamic mapping: This helps you visualize your meticulously planned routes and customize the colors of pins to distinguish between types of stops, such as pickups and deliveries. 
4. Adaptive customer notifications: They allow you to foresee and convey precise ETAs and delivery progress updates like “Out for Delivery” to your customers via email or text. These customer notifications pave the way to enhancing transparency and customer satisfaction levels.
5. Analytics Route summaries: Give you an overview of each route’s total distance, time, and savings. They also provide real-time insights into total successful deliveries, delivery exceptions, and average time spent on each stop to comprehend your on-field performance and fine-tune your route planning.

Pricing:

Weekly: $4.99/ week

Monthly: $19.99/ month

2. DynoRoute

Number of stops: Pay as you go

Route optimization: Available

Multi-stop route planning: Available

Works on: iOS and Mac

Ideal for: Fleet companies and delivery/field service businesses

If you are looking for a flexible pricing model that is a win-win for you and your multi-stop route planner app vendor, DynoRoute can be a great option. Every credit you buy strengthens your claim for better rates. We noticed that this app doesn’t just let you add stops along your route but also customize them by adding special instructions or delivery preferences.

If you are a solo driver, you can bank on DynoRoutes to take you to your intended destinations quickly. The strength of this app lies in its advanced routing algorithms that factor in delivery distances and preferred time windows to achieve dynamic route optimization. We also found that the latest version of DynoRoute supports Spanish and Portuguese. However, as much as we didn’t want you to hear it, you can’t access this app if you are an Android user as it currently supports only iOS users.

Key Features:

1. User-friendly interface: It doesn’t require a steep learning curve for you to understand how it works and gets you started on navigation in minutes.
2. Integration with Apple Maps: Seamlessly integrates with Apple Maps to prevent your hassle of switching between apps and get turn-by-turn instructions from within your app. 
3. Route reports: Provide details like the number of stops assigned, delivered, and missed per day, week, or month to assess overall or individual drivers’ delivery performance and take appropriate improvement measures.
4. Easy customization: This lets you choose your preferred distance unit, navigation app, and vehicle type to suit your delivery requirements.

Pricing:

Starter Pack: $9.99 (500 credits)

Optimization Pack: $19.99 (1200 credits)

Advanced Package: $39.99 (3000 credit)

3. BadgerMaps

Number of stops: Starts at 100+

Route optimization: Availableoptimoroute

Multi-stop route planning: Available

Works on: iOS and Android

Ideal for: Field sales teams and businesses

If you are a traveling salesperson traversing multiple addresses in a bustling city, BadgerMaps can be your ideal routing partner. We loved how it let us circle our cluster of addresses with just a fingertip to define territory and edit it based on visit frequency or customer type. It also lets you view your route for your entire day centrally to filter and prioritize your best opportunities.

BadgerMaps supports comparatively more navigation apps than other apps, including Waze, Google Maps, Garmin, and Magellan, to let you choose your favorite GPS. Even after adding 100+ accounts, it worked seamlessly, letting us plan the most optimal routes to cover them.

We also loved how it let us find and accommodate new opportunities to compensate for canceled appointments on the fly to maximize the sales trip efficiency. However, our tests revealed the slow loading time and subpar note-keeping ability as two primary concerns that could be addressed.

Key Features:

1. Targeted focus: This feature lets you color your points and filter your opportunities based on predefined upselling or cross-selling criteria to maximize your deals.
2. Follow-up route planning: This allows for checking in to appointment meetings, scheduling next follow-ups, and planning routes to accommodate them on further trips.
3. Reminders and alerts: Help avoid overlapping events and remind you of upcoming appointments to ensure you never miss any.
4. Detailed reports: These provide crucial details, including check-in photos, services completed, and surveys so that you can plan your future trips faster.

Pricing:

Business: $58 per user per month (billed annually)

Enterprise: $95 per user per month (billed annually)

4. OptimoRoute

Number of stops: Up to 700 in Lite and 1000 in Pro

Route optimization: Available

Multi-stop route planning: Available

Works on: iOS and Android

Ideal for: Organizing a mobile workforce

If you are looking to organize your mobile workforce, OptimoRoute can be a no-brainer fit for you. You can not only plan your routes with multiple addresses but also optimize them based on delivery distances, customers’ preferred time slots, and your daily working hours.

We also liked the dedicated driver app it provides, which allows you to follow the optimal sequence of stops. You can also make last-minute edits to accommodate priority changes or cancellations while maximizing routing efficiency.

Another strong reason why we found it highly useful was advanced route scheduling. For an individual professional pressed to cover umpteen stops daily left with no time to plan routes daily, OptimoRoute can come in handy by letting them plan routes for up to 5 weeks. However, our tests revealed two issues. One, we lost some information when transitioning GPS waypoints into addresses, leading to fewer addresses than the waypoints on the map. Two, it required us to pay a price for every user we wanted to add, rendering it expensive. 

Key Features:

1. Mobile app for drivers: It allows you to view and manage your routes on the go.
2. Pickup & delivery: This option lets you accommodate pickups and deliveries on the same route to create a hybrid workflow, reduce the number of trips, and decrease operational costs. 
3. Customer feedback. Facilitates configuring automated feedback requests to collect your customers’ ratings and reviews to improve your service based on them. 
4. Proof of delivery: This enables you to maintain a repository of digital proofs (images of items or customers’ signatures) of successful deliveries.

Pricing:

Lite: $35.10 per driver/month (billed annually)

Pro: $44.10 per driver/month (billed annually)

Custom: Varies based on your unique needs

5. Onfleet

Number of stops: Starts at 2000

Route optimization: Availablecircuit

Multi-stop route planning: Available

Works on: iOS and Android

Ideal for: Last-mile delivery management companies

Onfleet bills itself as a “complete last-mile delivery solution” that can handle your end-to-end delivery processes. Putting this claim to the test proved it to be quite right, if not fully. Besides the standard route optimization that almost all multi-stop route planner apps provide, it delighted us with AI-powered customer notifications and ETAs.

Trusted by over 1000 customers worldwide, this app also supports Proof of Delivery to record every successful delivery you make in the form of photos, signatures, barcodes, or digital notes. Another good thing is its versatility and usability across industries. However, it may take you some time before you familiarize yourself completely with its features due to its complex UI.

High prices may also be a problem for you if you are a small delivery business owner who has budget restrictions.

Key Features:

1. Advanced route planning: This allows you to plan routes for multiple weeks ahead of time, especially helpful in planning your daily start and stop if you are a long-haul driver. 
2. Real-time data: It displays up-to-the-moment customer information, order details, and the route for navigation to help you meet delivery expectations.
3. Feedback collection: Provides you with an integrated feedback form to receive your customers’ feedback and incorporate it to improve your service.
4. Real-time reports: Gives you insights into on-time rates, service times, feedback scores, and distance traveled to assess your performance and implement improvement measures.

Pricing:

Launch: $550 per month

Scale: $1265 per month

Enterprise: Not disclosed

6. Circuit Route Planner

Number of stops: Starts from 500

Route optimization: Available

Multi-stop route planning: Available

Works on: iOS and Android

Ideal for: Delivery or field service-based businesses

If you are stuck with juggling order priorities, traffic constraints, delivery distance, or speed while figuring out routes, Circuit can be your go-to route planner app to optimize your routes. The flexible and customizable data fields it provides can make your entry of stops easier, faster, and error-free, no matter how complex your addresses are.

An option that we found useful in cutting down address input time further was the “import stop data” using its driver app or even from e-commerce stores like Shopify. All you need is a custom API that supports this integration with your retail store. There is another feature that lets you organize stops and routes by your delivery zones to spend less time managing them manually.

However, we found making changes to a route through multiple clicks a little cumbersome and unintuitive. It also failed to recognize some remote or rural addresses across the United States that we entered. 

Key Features:

1. Delivery/service customization: This enables you to set priority levels, specific instructions, or the type of address (home/commercial) to effectively meet your customers’ delivery expectations. 
2. Proof of delivery: This lets you collect your customers’ digital signatures or photos of items delivered for a verifiable record and avoid delivery-related issues later. 
3. Dynamic customer notifications: Facilitates keeping your customers informed on the estimated times of arrival and ensures they are available for delivery or service.
4. Two-way API: This allows you to integrate Circuit with your existing software, like Shopify, and automate tricky processes like updating or importing lists of addresses.

Pricing:

Starts at $20 per month

7. Google Maps

Number of stops: 10

Route optimization: Available to an extent

Multi-stop route planning: Available

Works on: iOS and Android

Ideal for: Localized retailers

With over 10 billion downloads worldwide, Google Maps multi-stop route planner app forms the most popular routing app. The biggest USP is that it is free to use and serves as one of the best route planners for casual outdoor trips with multiple stops. Needless to say, everyone, including us likes the advanced functionality like Street View and indoor maps of buildings for providing an immersive experience when searching or visualizing a location or place. 

Whether you are driving, walking, or taking public transport, Google Maps is there to guide you through. One more feature that people like is a simple tap on a location in the map to view all its details, including time zones and nearby areas. However, the biggest limitation is the upper limit of stops, i.e. only 10, rendering it infeasible for large retailers or delivery services. Moreover, it doesn’t optimize routes for commercial trucks based on factors like vehicle specifications, weight limits, or compliance regulations, making it unsuitable for logistics businesses. 

Key Features:

• Automated rerouting: Reroutes you on your trip based on real-time traffic, incidents, or road closures to save you transit time
• Real-time ETAs: Displays accurate estimated times of arrivals for your stops based on traffic patterns.
• Live view: This view shows you arrows and directions placed on your map to guide you along your route turn by turn.
• Multiple route options: This section informs you of multiple route options along with ETAs so you can choose the route that suits your urgency and preference.

Pricing:

Free

8. MyRouteOnline

Number of stops: 1000

Route optimization: Available 

Multi-stop route planning: Available

Works on: iOS and Android

Ideal for: Delivery, distribution, sales, and service companies

If you want to map your territory and plan as many as 1000 stops in one go, MyRouteOnline can be what you are looking for. Tests revealed that it not only helps minimize distance and time by planning routes but also considers your working hours to optimize them accordingly.  

A feature that stands out, in particular, is the route animation, which lets you visualize and evaluate your routes before you start on them and make changes if required. There is also a feature that lets you export your routes to Google Maps, Garmin, or TomTom, and even Excel spreadsheets. What didn’t work for us was the printing of export routes, which was slow and forced us to take screenshots instead. If you want to sort routes by distances to locate and start trips with the farthest stops first, we must tell you it doesn’t allow that.

Key Features:

1. Reloading and importing contacts: Allows you to reload and update preplanned routes to save you time planning them from scratch every time.
2. Easy import: Supports the import of your address lists from cloud storage like Google Drive or Dropbox to save your manual entry time.
3. Customized multi-routing: Lets you set a fixed duration for each stop, maximum route duration, or the number of stops to cover in each route while planning multiple routes.
4. Save routes: Facilitates saving an unlimited number of routes online to facilitate easy access as and when needed.

9. MapQuest

Number of stops: 26

Route optimization: Available 

Multi-stop route planning: Available

Works on: iOS and Android

Ideal for: Small-sized retail companies

Launched in 1966, MapQuest is the pioneer of web-based mapping services and forms a great turn-by-turn GPS navigation app. Equipped with voice-navigation capabilities, it guides you through your routes when driving or cycling. Furthermore, you will also find the route planner to optimize your routes based on traffic constraints and reduce your driving distance, time, and fuel costs.

While testing the speedometer features, we found that it was really helpful in comparing a vehicle’s actual speed against the maximum legal speed along a route, ensuring compliance. We also found the way it compares prices at nearby gas or fuel stations really helpful, as you can choose the most cost-effective filling station and save some dollars. It is even more beneficial when you are an individual delivery driver running on a tight budget. However, it may not work for you if you wish to add more than 26 stops in one go, unlike MyRouteOnline.

Key Features

1. Multi-Stop Route Planning & Optimization: Allows you to set a start point other than your current location, add multiple stops, and optimize them based on traffic and toll/highway avoidance preferences.
2. Multiple route choices: Typically displays two or three similar route options and ETAs for you to choose from based on your urgency and route preferences.
3. Favorites: Lets you save your favorite routes to some recurring stops for quick referencing whenever needed.

10. Apple Maps

Number of stops: 15

Route optimization: Available 

Multi-stop route planning: Available

Works on: iOS 

Ideal for: Apple users looking for limited route planning

Headquartered in the United States, Apple Inc. released Apple Maps on September 19, 2012, making it the default map system for iOS or MacOS users. This web mapping service is free and globally popular for the clean and simple user interface that it provides for navigation. Apple Maps has banked on its USP – a high level of data privacy since the beginning, as it doesn’t require any sign-in using your Apple ID. So, you can stay assured your data is safe and secured while using Apple Maps. 

The turn-by-turn navigation guidance based on real-time traffic and quick detours to prevent congestion is also universally loved. We were also impressed by the alerts it sends out for upcoming exits and turns, which provide accurate lane guidance to avoid wrong turns or missed exits. However, you won’t be able to plan your routes for stops exceeding 15 and heavy commercial vehicles using it.

Key Features:

1. Transit support: This feature shows real-time information about public transport vehicles like buses or trains, including their arrival and departure times, to make navigation around a town easier. 
2. Advanced search capabilities: It leverages ultra-specific filters in the search bar like price or distance to find restaurants, hotels, or clubs. You can also tap on Nearby to locate petrol stations, hotels, groceries, and coffee shops in your vicinity.
3. EV routing: The latest iOS 17 upgrade also introduced EV routing to optimize your routes in case you have electric vehicles by showing you real-time EV charger availability for supported chargers.
4. Offline maps: Lets you select an area you wish to access, search, and download even when you are off-grid or executing deliveries in far-flung areas.

3 Limitations of Free Route Planner Apps

Although free route planner apps may be useful to start with, they may not let you scale up as your business grows. 

Here are the challenges they pose:

1. Inability to handle multiple vehicles and stops

   Most free route planners allow you to optimize your route from Point A to Point B for just one vehicle. Even if some free route planners support multi-stop route planning, they usually let you add up to only a certain number of addresses, up to 20 or 25. It means that if you need to plan routes for more than this number of stops or multiple drivers or vehicles, a free route planner may not serve your purpose.

2. Potential security concerns

   As free route planners are often open-source, they may pose data security issues, rendering them less safe than premium route planner.

3. Installation and usage issues 

   While free route planners may be attractive, they may not always be easy to install or use. Moreover, you typically don’t get any customer service support or training to guide you on how to implement or use free route planners. 

So, it’s crucial to decide when to replace your free routing app with a paid one. The following section enumerates the signs that indicate you need an upgrade to help you out in this process.

6 Scenarios Where You Need Paid Route Planners

As already clear, a free route planner may be suitable for limited stops. However, as your business expands to add new customers and addresses, you may need to plan routes with multiple stops and distribute them optimally among your staff. 

It may become unmanageable with free planners that don’t support stops beyond a certain number and optimize routes often for only a single driver. So, if you want to plan routes for multiple delivery vehicles and drivers while optimizing your fuel and maintenance costs, a free route planner may not serve your purpose.

These are a few situations or scenarios that indicate you may need the long-awaited upgrade to paid service or delivery route planners.

• Failure to meet your delivery deadlines 
• Excess time spent on planning routes
• Over-reliance on fixed routes
• Poor visibility into last-mile delivery operations
• Soaring transportation costs eating up profits
• Higher failed delivery attempts and order returns

Now that you know when to upgrade to a paid route planner, let’s understand its advantages.

4 Benefits of Route Planner Apps

Route planner apps redefine the way you plan and optimize your routes by providing the following benefits.

1. High operational efficiency

An advanced multi-stop route planner app helps consider different criteria, including traffic patterns, distances, and delivery-related constraints like your customers’ preferred time windows while creating routes. It, thus, paves the way to creating the most efficient routes for your drivers to traverse. It helps reduce the time and distance to cover your stops, reducing associated operational expenses like fuel or repair/maintenance costs and enhancing your delivery efficiency.

2. Increased productivity

Creating optimal routes using a route planner helps you save time figuring out delivery routes manually. Optimized routes thus help them accomplish more deliveries in less time, boosting their productivity. When you can cover more stops in a given period, it also enables you to handle higher volumes of orders and expand your customer base. 

3. Enhanced customer satisfaction

Efficient route planning allows you to take into account your customers’ preferred time window while scheduling deliveries, reducing failed delivery attempts. Further, optimized routes also help you deliver every order on time. Some planners also provide GPS tracking to monitor your delivery progress and convey accurate ETAs to your customers, enhancing transparency. When customers receive orders within their preferred delivery windows without delays, it helps build their trust in your brand and boosts their satisfaction levels.

4. Improved decision-making 

Route planner apps help you collect information and provide reports on data related to routes and deliveries. For instance, they let you view the total number of stops covered and missed per day, week, or month to analyze your overall performance. Based on this analysis, you can identify and address issues to elevate your route efficiency.

Multi-Stop Route Planner Apps: Navigate Your Multi-Stop Routes Confidently

A multi-stop route planner is the key to enhancing your delivery or field service operations and saving valuable time, costs, and resources. While several such route planners are available, they may not let you add stops beyond a certain number (usually up to 25) and usually let you plan only one route at a time.

These limitations may hinder your ability to scale your delivery or field service operations and cater to the expectations of your ever-increasing customer base. The route planner you choose depends on factors like integration requirements, delivery distances, number of locations, and budget. So, it’s time to evaluate your business requirements and arrive at the right decision.